


Lotus Eaters

by DemyxDancer



Series: Professionals [7]
Category: Steven Universe (Cartoon)
Genre: A Routine Mission, Dream Logic, F/F, Hallucinations, Mind Control, Mind Manipulation, Reality Bending, You Need to Wake Up
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-04-04
Updated: 2020-04-04
Packaged: 2021-03-01 03:33:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,256
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23478532
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DemyxDancer/pseuds/DemyxDancer
Summary: The problem with fighting a mind controller is that you can never really quite be sure when you're done.Peridot and her friends go on a routine mission to recover some missing researchers.
Relationships: Lapis Lazuli/Peridot (Steven Universe)
Series: Professionals [7]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1573660
Comments: 56
Kudos: 62





	Lotus Eaters

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Time to get weird, I suppose.
> 
> This story uses elements of _Professionals_ continuity, but is otherwise standalone.

A harsh wind whipped around the Little Homeworld crew as they arrived at the abandoned colony via warp pad. 

“What a great place to take a vacation!” said Peridot, looking around at the half-ruined buildings and piles of debris. “You sure know how to pick ‘em, Zircs.”

Zircon rolled her eyes. “Next time I get a missing Gem report, I’ll make sure it’s for a more picturesque location.”

“Good plan,” said Lapis. “Can the Gems go missing at the Zoo next time? I could really go for a few days in a hot tub.”

The warp pad was in the middle of a square covered in a deep gray, sparkling material, neither pavement nor metal but sharing properties of both. They were surrounded on all sides by tall, charcoal gray, cylindrical buildings, each with a single set of double doors on the lowest level and no windows. Most were more or less intact, but a few had sustained damage and were crumbling into piles of stone and metal. Peridot shielded her gemstone as the wind blew sharp pebbles right into her face.

“Unfortunately, prominent Gem researchers usually aren’t interested in exploring pleasure cruises.” Zircon used her monocle to pull up the details of the report. 

“So why were they interested in this place?” asked Connie, pulling her jacket close around herself as the wind picked up.

“It’s an early Era 1 colony, much older than any of us, even older than Pink Diamond,” Zircon explained. “It was abandoned for unknown reasons and its existence was effectively erased by the Diamonds. Now that Era 3 reforms have opened up all historic records, Selenite teams have been working on uncovering lost bits of Gem history.”

“So this is like ancient Gem ruins!” said Connie, enthusiastically. “That’s so cool. Thanks for letting me come along.”

“Of course!” Bismuth smiled at her fondly. “You’re a Crystal Gem too. Besides, if Gems are going missing, it’s better to go in with a larger team, so we can have each others’ backs.”

“I can’t believe they came to a place like this with just two Gems.” Lapis shuddered. “Selenites are pretty tough, but they’re really built for research, not fighting.”

Peridot fiddled with a device she pulled out of her gemstone. “Everyone has their tracking devices attached to their Gems, right? Or I guess Connie is wearing hers…”

“Here,” she said, holding up her wrist.

Somewhere in the distance, a large piece of metal crashed to the ground, startling the group as the noise echoed through the square.

“Good, good.” Peridot could see the signals of all of her friends coming through strong and clear on the machine. She tried to steady her nerves as she adjusted the tracking signal to try and find any other Gem activity. While part of her was incredibly excited to explore an ancient Gem facility that could very well be full of ancient Gem technology, another part of her was becoming increasingly unnerved by her surroundings.

She stepped off the warp pad, slightly away from the group, as she swept her device in the air, fiddling with the settings so that it would temporarily ignore the signatures of the Gems nearest her. She nearly slipped on one of the deactivated Flask Robonoids littered around the warp pad -- presumably the ones that the Selenites had sent here to fix the pad before their arrival. Peridot’s own Robonoids bounced and clattered on the warp pad, one of them pawing at Connie’s ankles, another climbing up Zircon, who was completely lost in staring at the report on her screen.

“Find anything?” asked Bismuth.

“I’m picking up the signals of a few Gems, but it’s odd.”

“Odd in what way?”

“The level of activity is significantly higher than if they were bubbled, but significantly lower than if they were normally active.” Peridot frowned at her device. “Maybe there’s something wrong with this…”

“Maybe they’re sleeping?” said Connie.

“Maybe… but it’s hard to imagine Selenites in their element, exploring such significant historic ruins, stopping to _sleep.”_ As much as Peridot enjoyed sleeping occasionally, she certainly couldn’t imagine being able to get to sleep in a place like this. 

Zircon collapsed her screen. “There’s so many things that could go wrong in a place like this. The early Gems had all sorts of technology that was deemed too dangerous and discontinued. Who knows what kind of terrifying abandoned Gem tech we could find here?”

“Yeah, isn’t it great?” Peridot grinned, earning her a glare from Zircon.

“If you’re not okay with doing this, you could warp back home, you know,” said Lapis.

“I most certainly will not! This is my case and I am going to help investigate it.” Zircon straightened her posture in what seemed to be an unsuccessful attempt to look less anxious. “Besides, I have four powerful Gems protecting me, right?”

“I’m not a Gem,” said Connie.

“Three powerful Gems and an extremely formidable human being with a large sword,” Zircon corrected, smiling at Connie. “I really couldn’t ask for a better security detail.” She absentmindedly picked up the Robonoid that had crawled onto her shoulder and cuddled it to her chest as though it were her cat.

“Those weak signals are all I can find,” Peridot pointed in the direction of one of the most intact buildings. “That’s where they’re coming from. Ready?”

“Think we’re as ready as we’ll ever be,” said Bismuth. “Let’s go.”

Bismuth started walking towards the building, the rest of the group following, Connie bouncing along eagerly beside Lapis as Zircon made vaguely distressed noises. Peridot lagged behind slightly as she fiddled with her tracking device. She still wasn’t convinced it wasn’t just malfunctioning.

For the briefest moment, she felt the slightest pressure on her Gem, almost as though a large raindrop had fallen on it.

She whipped her head around, looking for the source, but saw nothing but the same desolate square. She touched her gem but couldn’t feel anything wet. Maybe one of the bits of debris had hit her? 

“Coming, Peri?” asked Lapis, turning around.

“Yeah,” she said, catching up to the group. “Hey, Lapis, is there something on my gem?”

“Let me see.” Lapis had an extremely serious expression on her face as she held Peridot by the chin and turned her face back and forth, examining her gem carefully. “I don’t see anything. Wait, hold on, there _is_ something on your gem.”

“What?!”

“This.” Lapis suddenly kissed her exactly in the middle of the gem.

Peridot blushed blue. “Lapis, you _sap,_ now is not the time!” She fought to keep a goofy grin off her face as Lapis laughed.

“I can’t believe you two are flirting in a place like this,” teased Bismuth.

“Really, Bis? Because I’ve seen you and Pearl flirt while we train,” said Connie, grinning.

Zircon facepalmed. “Can we _please_ focus on the incredibly dangerous missing Gem mission and not our love lives?” 

“So I can’t ask you about your human, then?” said Peridot, applying percussive maintenance to her uncooperative tracker.

“No, you may _not,”_ said Zircon in a strangled tone. “That is _exactly_ the sort of thing we are not stopping to discuss in the middle of a mission.”

“But when we get back, though?”

“...maybe.”

They had arrived at the doors to the building where Peridot had tracked the Gem signal. “Looks like the entry pad’s already been hotwired,” said Peridot. “This Era 1 security has all sorts of known flaws in it. It would’ve been trivial for the Selenites to bypass this.” She hit a button and the doors slid open. “At least the electricity’s still functional. It’s pretty impressive that these Era 1 solar cores have lasted so long without regular maintenance.”

“How many Gem signals did you say you were tracking?” asked Connie.

“It’s hard to say with how strange the device is acting. Probably three, but it could be more like six.”

“That’s more than the two Selenites who disappeared. How do we know someone’s _not_ maintaining the solar cores?”

“Oh, don’t say that!” said Zircon, looking a few seconds away from a meltdown. 

“Connie’s got a point,” said Bismuth. “We’d better be ready for a worst case scenario of potentially hostile Gems.”

“If they are, they’re at the same low level of Gem activity as the Selenites, though.” Peridot glared at her scanner, as though that would cause it to give her a more reasonable reading.

“Lapis and I will go first in case there’s trouble,” said Bismuth. “Connie, you watch behind us. Peri’s on scanner duty. Zircs is on calming-herself-down-so-she-can-actually-investigate duty. Everyone good with that?”

They all nodded.

“Let’s go in.”

Peridot walked closely behind Lapis as they entered the building, her scanner dropping by her side as her eyes opened wide with awe and glee. The entire first floor of this building was what appeared to be an R&D floor. Worktables were filled with all sorts of elegant, sleek early Era 1 technology -- objects that looked like engines, blast cannons, weapons of all kinds, and things Peridot couldn’t even begin to identify.

“It’s too good to be true,” she said to herself. “It’s so beautiful.”

Hands gripped her shoulders before she could run to the nearest worktable and bask in the glory of forgotten ancient technology. “Peri, don’t,” said Lapis. “I know you really, really want to, but we can’t touch any of this until we figure out what caused the Selenites to disappear.”

“But Lapis…” Peridot pleaded. “Look at all this tech! This is my _destiny._ I was _made for this.”_

“Oh, I know,” said Lapis, with fondness in her voice. “But if you mysteriously disappear, you won’t get to play with any of it. I’m sure once we get the Selenites back, you can help recover all this tech. Maybe you can even lead a team.”

“A whole team…” Peridot had stars in her eyes. “Yes, that is an excellent plan as usual, Lapis!”

“This is bad,” said Zircon, hands on her temples. “Look at this place! There were obviously tons of workers here, but everything looks perfectly intact, like they all dropped it and ran one day. I don’t think the Selenites touched any of it, either -- they would have set up perimeters around the site, and there’d be other evidence of their cataloging.”

“You think?” asked Bismuth. “Weren’t they the ones who rigged the entry pad?”

“That’s what I thought,” said Peridot, shrugging. She began fiddling with her scanner again. “Zircs has a point though. It doesn’t really look like they were here.”

Connie looked over her shoulder. “Well, what’s your scanner say now?” 

“They’re below us. Probably just one floor. Anyone see the stairs?”

The group carefully avoided touching anything on any of the work tables as they headed to the side of the room, where there was a clearly marked stairwell. When they reached the first basement, Bismuth hesitated before opening the door.

“Peri, are they in here?”

Peridot made a frustrated noise as she adjusted the frequency. “That’s my best guess. The readings are still impossibly low for active Gems, though.”

“Guess we’ll see.” Bismuth opened the door onto another R&D floor, only slightly smaller than the one just upstairs. This one had one obvious, glaring difference, however.

“What is _that?”_ said Lapis. Towards one side of the room, on one of the work tables, was a glowing cube pulsating in every color of the rainbow. The cube was surrounded by a number of Gems who were hard to positively identify in the weird, distorted light, but who were very likely Selenites. They weren’t moving, and the faces that Peridot could see were slack-jawed and glassy-eyed.

“You said there were maybe six,” said Bismuth. “This is more like _eight.”_

“I didn’t know how to interpret the results I was seeing, Bis! I guess this explains the low Gem activity, though, if they’re all enthralled by this… thing.”

“We need to get out of here _now.”_ Lapis said, fear in her voice. “We found the Selenites, right? Mission accomplished.”

“Hold on! We have to figure out how to rescue them, too.”

“That thing is obviously dangerous, Peri. I don’t want to get trapped here like them.”

“I know, I know, just let me send a Robonoid to go take data. Then we can get out of here and wait for the Robonoid to come back.”

“Fine,” said Lapis, relenting. “Just don’t _look_ at it.”

“It’ll only take a minute,” said Peridot, tapping on the control panel of a Robonoid, quickly programming it with the data collection routine she wanted. She released it and sent it skittering into the room. “Got it. Zircs, did you get what you needed to close your case?” No response. “Zircs?”

Zircon was standing on the bottom step, staring forward at nothing, eyes glassy and unfocused. 

“Zircs!” Peridot grabbed her by the shoulders and shook her. “Hey, wake up!” 

Zircon’s left eye twitched.

“Okay, time to leave!” Bismuth herded everyone up the the stairs, hoisting an unresponsive Zircon under one arm as she went.

“Oh stars, I hope she’s not permanently damaged,” said Peridot as they retraced their steps through the facility.

“I don’t think so,” said Connie, her worried tone indicating she was trying to reassure herself, too. “She’ll probably be fine once we get her far enough away from that thing.”

Once they had exited the building and walked a short way away from it for good measure, Bismuth set Zircon back down on her feet. “Hey, Zircs, snap out of it,” she said, snapping her fingers right next to her head.

To Peridot’s immense relief, the noise startled Zircon out of her trance. “Aah! What happened? Where am I?”

“You _clod!”_ yelled Peridot, as relief gave way to frustration. “I can’t believe you looked directly at the weird flashy mind melting cube thing!”

“Mind melting cube thing? What are you talking about? I was just in my office… no, I was on this mission…?” Confusion mixed with worry on her face.

“We were looking for the missing Selenites, remember?” Connie explained. “They’ve been caught in some kind of… mind control forcefield? You got caught too.”

“Oh, stars, no wonder I feel like my gem’s been caught in a rock tumbler. I don’t remember any of that.”

“What was it like?” Peridot asked. “That might help us figure out what we’re dealing with.”

“I thought I was back in my office and… I don’t know exactly how to explain it, but it made perfect sense to me, even though obviously it doesn’t make any sense I’d somehow end up in my office from here.”

“Like a dream!” said Connie.

“I suppose, yes.”

“Well, thanks for being the canary in the coal mine,” said Peridot, watching loading bars tick as her Robonoid collected data.

“How do you know about that, Peridot?” asked Connie.

“I was studying human mining techniques a while back, to see if you had any interesting ideas.”

“So what’s a canary in a coal mine, and why am I one?” asked Zircon.

“Mines can have poisonous gases that are dangerous to humans. They take a canary, which is a kind of small bird, with them. The canary is more sensitive to the gases than the humans, so it dies first, and the humans know they have to leave.”

Zircon blinked. “I _strenuously object_ to being the canary.”

“That’s too bad, because you’re clearly the most susceptible to -- oh, here comes the data!” Peridot clapped in glee. “Interesting -- it looks like it’s producing some kind of pulsing radio wave. Maybe you really _don’t_ have to look at it.”

“How do we know we’re safe out here, then?” asked Bismuth.

“I guess we don’t. That’s what the canary is for, right?”

“I am _not_ going to be the canary!”

“It’s okay, Zircs,” said Bismuth. “You said you felt like you were back in your office right? Now you know that if you end up home and safe, you’re probably caught in the brainwashing forcefield thing again.”

“Bis,” said Zircon, with a look of abject horror on her face, “you may have just given me a brand new existential terror for life.”

“I don’t mean forever! Just until we’ve finished the mission!”

“But how will I _know?”_ said Zircon, arms flailing. “I could still be trapped right now and not even know it!”

Peridot ignored them in favor of watching the data stream in from her Robonoid. “Looks like the radio wave is specifically designed to interrupt connections in a gemstone, which is what you’d expect. It interferes with perception, sense of identity… If I could figure out how to get near it, I could probably easily disable it.”

Connie interjected. “Uh, guys, not to interrupt, but Lapis…”

Peridot’s head snapped up from her device. Lapis was glassy-eyed, staring at nothing. “Lapis!” Peridot shrieked. “You’re not supposed to be the canary! Wake up!”

“Hm?” said Lapis, barely acknowledging Peridot.

“Lapis! Lapis, c’mon!”

“Peridot, we have to leave!” Connie was frantic. “If it can affect you all the way out here, we’re not safe!”

“She’s right. Back to the warp pad.” Bismuth picked up a wildly flailing Zircon under her arm again.

“Bis, what are you --”

“Not risking it. Peri, get Lapis.”

Peridot grabbed Lapis by the wrist and began to pull her across the complex to the warp pad, thankful that the other Gem didn’t put up any resistance.

“Wait, there’s something on the warp pad!” yelled Connie as it came into view.

“More Selenites?!” said Peridot.

“I thought your scanner only found the ones in the other building?!”

“It did! This cloddy piece of junk…” Selenites were exceptionally durable and had a fair amount of strength, but otherwise weren’t anything all that special in combat. “Bis, we’re gonna have to fight them.” No response.

Peridot turned around and saw that Bismuth had stopped following them and was standing there still, holding a now-unmoving Zircon. “Oh, not you too!”

Connie, sword drawn, stood back to back with Peridot. “Peridot, this is _bad._ What are we going to do?”

“It’s fine. I’ve got it,” said Peridot, though her voice was shaking. “There’s tons of metal around here.” She used her mind to lift an enormous metal girder from one of the nearby collapsed buildings, hurtling it towards the group of Selenites, who scattered.

“Nice!” cheered Connie. “Let’s get the others and --”

Connie’s voice suddenly sounded like it was coming from a million miles away. Peridot lost her grip on the girder, which went crashing down. Her vision blurred.

She opened her eyes.

She was back in her lair, in her hammock.

Had all of that been a dream? Something about her friends going on a dangerous mission. The memories were already slipping away, leaving just the lingering feeling that there was something important she was supposed to be doing.

“Hey, Peridot! Did you have a good nap?”

Peridot would have expected Lapis, but instead it was Connie, sitting on the couch and waving cheerfully.

“I… guess? Not really. I dreamed that we were all on this mission and there were creepy zombie Gems and Zircs was a canary.”

Connie raised an eyebrow. “What?” 

“Never mind. What are you doing here, anyway?”

“I came to wake you up,” said Connie. “Peridot, you have to wake up.”

“Um. I am awake, though,” said Peridot, confused. “Did you wanna watch _Under the Knife_ or something? I don’t really understand that show, or how humans deal with the fact that they’re fragile, easily punctured containers of liquid, but I’d be willing to --”

“No, Peridot, listen. You have to wake up right now.” Connie’s increasingly frantic tone was unnerving. 

“Connie, I don’t understand.”

“Remember what Bis said? The existential crisis?”

_Now you know that if you end up home and safe, you’re probably caught in the brainwashing forcefield thing again._

“Oh, stars!” said Peridot, as the lair dissolved away. Rainbow colors danced against her eyelids. She opened her eyes to see that she had somehow ended up in the basement with the cube and the zombie Selenites. Lapis was standing near her, out cold. A fully lucid Connie was being held in place by a couple of the Selenites.

“Peridot!” screamed Connie. “You have to get out of here! Go get Steven!”

“And just leave you guys?!”

“Quick, before it gets you again! We’ll be fine!”

Peridot turned her head to the stairwell. Connie was right -- that was their best chance.

But the Selenites would still be there guarding the warp pad, if she could even get there. That was assuming the ones surrounding her in the basement didn’t jump her as soon as she tried to escape.

The cube was right in front of her. She could even reach out and touch it. It probably wouldn’t be difficult to disable.

“Connie, new plan! You have to keep me working no matter what!” Peridot could already feel the cube tugging at her mind again as her hands searched across its surface, locating an access panel.

“What?! Are you serious?” 

“Trust me! This will work,” she said, with more confidence than she felt. “Just keep talking, and keep me working, okay?”

“I… guess I can try!” said Connie, desperation in her voice.

Peridot’s vision was starting to blur. “It’s going to send me back to the lair. I can work there!”

“Oh, I think I --”

Connie’s voice faded out as Peridot opened her eyes. Despite having just taken a nap, she felt really stressed out for some reason.

“Peridot!” Connie was standing just below the hammock. “Peridot, wake up! You have work to do!”

“Ugh, can’t it wait?” Peridot said, wrapping herself more tightly in a blanket. “I’m comfortable.”

“No, it can’t wait. Lapis is in danger!”

“Lapis?!” Peridot’s warm laziness immediately dissolved. “Is that why she isn’t here?”

“That’s right,” said Connie. “Here, you have to disable this thing.”

There was a cube glowing in rainbow colors on the work table next to Connie. Had that been there before? It looked familiar. 

An access panel was open on one side. For some reason, she knew what she had to do. She hopped down from the hammock and began to rummage around inside of the cube, disconnecting wires.

“Good job, Peridot, keep working!” 

“You don’t really need to cheer me on, you know,” said Peridot. It was already unusually difficult for her to concentrate without Connie yelling in her ear.

“I actually do, though. You’ll understand once you finish.”

“If you say so.” Peridot frowned. The power supply wasn’t where she had expected it to be. She spun the cube around, searching for another access panel.

“Keep going, Peridot!” 

“I’m trying, I’m trying!” She found and opened a second access panel, revealing a bewildering away of cables and blinking lights. Her vision began to blur as she lost concentration.

She opened her eyes. 

She was in a kindergarten on some remote planet. Neat rows of holes that would become Quartz soldiers stretched out as far as the eye could see.

This wasn’t right. She wasn’t supposed to be here. 

Of course she was supposed to be here. She was a Peridot, and this was what Peridots did. She was good at it, too. A certified kindergartner.

“Peridot, you have to keep working!” She felt like she should recognize that voice, but she couldn’t tell where it was coming from.

Regardless, the voice was right. Peridot sighed and turned her attention to the nearest Quartz growing site, automatically performing the routine inspections that she had done for thousands of years.

“Peridot, you need to work!” the voice called again, with increased urgency. Must be her supervisor.

“I _am_ working,” said Peridot, irritated. “Uh… my Agate?”

“Where are you?” called the voice. “Are you still in the lair?”

“No, I’m in a kindergarten, obviously.”

“Uh…” The voice seemed taken aback. “Okay, you need to stop working on… Gem exit holes, I guess? …and work on this cube. I’m an Agate so you have to listen to me!”

“You don’t _sound_ like an Agate,” said Peridot, as a glowing rainbow cube appeared in front of her. 

“It doesn’t matter. Disabling this cube is definitely part of your job. You have to do it as fast as possible.”

It didn’t make any sense, but Peridot instinctively reached for the cube anyway. The power supply was right there -- if she wanted to disable the cube, pulling out the power supply would definitely be the fastest way. She reached for it, and began pulling out cables.

“Keep going, Peridot! It’s working!” 

Peridot’s head spun as the world melted and dissolved around her -- she saw Little Homeworld, a spaceship hangar, the barn -- but she retained a single-minded concentration for removing the power supply as fast as possible. Finally, the landscape settled into an abandoned basement R&D floor as she triumphantly pulled the last cord.

“...complete, it will be a far more humane punishment than bubbling or shattering!” said one of the Selenites, waking up mid-sentence. “Wait… what’s going on?”

“Oh, stars!” said another of the Selenites, one of two with a completely different uniform than the rest. “What _was_ that thing?”

“The last thing I remember was that you got caught in it, and I tried to save you -- I thought we were both goners when it started to get me too,” said her companion.

“Peridot!” 

Peridot was lifted off the ground as Lapis pulled her into a hug. “Lapis! I’m so glad you aren’t a zombie!”

“I guess it got me, huh?” she said. “I can’t believe I let that _thing_ trap me.”

“Are you okay?” said Peridot, suddenly fearful of what Lapis saw when she was stuck there.

“All I remember is being back at the lair, taking a nap with you,” said Lapis. “As far as prisons go, I’ve had way worse.” She smiled, clearly trying to brush it off, but Peridot could sense the distress underlying her words.

“Where’s everyone else?”

“Right here,” said Bismuth. “That was… certainly an experience.”

Zircon was standing next to her, vibrating with nerves.

“Zircs? You okay?” asked Peridot.

“Well, _no,_ I’m not okay,” she said. “I woke up in my office, and things were fine, but then I remembered what Bis said about being caught. I kept trying to wake up, but _I didn’t know how to wake up._ It was horrible.”

“Sorry,” said Connie, letting herself down from the grip of the now thoroughly confused Selenites. “I guess I should have shouted at the rest of you, too. I was just trying to keep Peridot working.”

“Is that how you saved us?” asked Bismuth.

“Yeah, Connie was amazing!” said Peridot, tackle-hugging her. “I was trying to disable the thing, but I kept seeing all these different places, and Connie kept cheering me on, and I got it!”

“You did great, too!” Connie returned the hug. “I don’t know how you worked through all of that, but you did.”

“Top-notch engineering skills is how,” said Peridot. “I’m exceptionally good at multitasking, even if the tasks in question are disabling ancient Gem tech and hallucinating my past.”

“So are you the rescue team?” asked one of the two Selenites standing together.

“That’s right!” said Bismuth. “Zircs here took your case.”

“Yes!” said Zircon, still visibly quivering. “The historic research is a direct consequence of Era 3 reforms, so a lot of the other Gems equipped to investigate aren’t all that interested…”

“And we’re her technical expertise slash security detail slash moral support!” Peridot chimed in. “For today, anyway.”

“Well, we can’t thank you all enough. You know, most Gems would have said this whole thing serves us right for poking our gems where they don’t belong, and would have left us to erode.”

“Cases no one else will touch are kinda her thing,” said Peridot.

“If I had left it to be assigned to some random other Gem, it would have been written off as unsolvable!” said Zircon.

“See?”

“Pardon us,” said one of the other Selenites, who had broken off into their own group and were conferring quietly. “But how long has it been since, ah --”

“Fourteen thousand years,” said one of the newer Selenites.

“Fourteen thousand -- !” She immediately rounded on one of her co-workers. “This is _your_ fault, 1NX! I told you our testing plan didn’t cover all the corner cases!”

“Well, maybe we shouldn’t have agreed to rush the deadline to give a demo of obviously unstable brainwashing tech, 7XI!”

“So you _were_ trying to create brainwashing technology?” asked Bismuth.

“Well, yes, of course!” said 7XI. “It’s still a proof of concept, but in its final form it would have made Gems perfectly obedient and docile. It’d only be used on Gems convicted of subordination, of course.” 7XI withered under the death glares of five Crystal Gems. “What?! This was on orders from Yellow Diamond. It could have revolutionized the court system!”

The Crystal Gems glanced at each other. Lapis picked up the cube with one of her water appendages, and smashed it as hard as she could against the floor, shattering it into thousands of pieces.

“Yeah, we don’t do that kind of thing any more,” she said. “So are we done here? Can we go home?”

“Yes, _please,”_ said Zircon.

“You two can come with us,” said Bismuth, gesturing toward the researchers. “The rest of you… we’re going to need to figure out what to do with.”

“We can’t just leave them here with all this tech,” Lapis pointed out. “They’re going to have to come with us too.”

“Right. Do we have anything we can use to restrain them?”

“I do!” Peridot pulled at least a half dozen restraining devices from her gem.

Bismuth blinked in surprise. “Peri… do I want to know why you have so many of those?”

“Because I’m prepared for anything!” she said proudly, not having the slightest idea why Connie was blushing and giggling.

“We’re being _arrested_ for doing our jobs?!” said 1NX. “You’ve got to be kidding me. I’d better get a good lawyer for this.” She glared at Zircon. “Not you.”

Zircon shrugged. “Mutual.”

Apart from grumbling, the older Selenites put up little resistance to being fitted with restraints and guided to the warp pad. Peridot was very glad to finally leave the basement.

“Still want to collect all this old tech?” asked Lapis.

“Yes, absolutely!” she said. “Just… I’m going to need to assemble a team and put a _lot_ of thought into how we can safely handle all of this, so nothing like _that_ happens again.”

“Good answer,” said Lapis, smiling.

“Peridot!” Zircon was calling for her for some reason. “Hey! Peridot!”

Peridot looked back to where Zircon was trailing behind the rest of the group and went to talk to her. “What’s up, Zircs?”

“Hm?” Zircon seemed startled out of her train of thought. “Nothing.”

“Why were you calling me?”

“What are you talking about?” She seemed genuinely confused.

“That’s weird,” said Peridot. “I could have sworn I heard…”

“You have to wake up, Peridot.”

“What?!”

“I didn’t say anything!” said Zircon, alarmed. “Oh stars, you must be hearing things. Maybe the cube is still affecting you? This is exactly what I was afraid of.”

“No, it’s just…” Peridot felt uneasy. It was probably just brought on by stress -- her subconscious remembering Connie yelling at her to wake up and keep working. 

But if that were the reason why, why would it be Zircs she heard and not Connie?

“I think it’s just stress. I’ll be fine.” 

Zircon did not seem at all comforted by this assessment. “Are you sure? Because that whole situation was just…” She made a series of hand gestures that seemed intended to convey terror and discomfort.

“I know. I don’t really want to think about it too much,” she said. She was so tired. A nap was definitely in order when she got home. “How about you? Are you okay?”

Zircon drew in a sharp breath. “I can’t stop thinking about -- you’re going to think I’m paranoid.”

“You’re still thinking that you can’t be sure whether we’re really free or not.”

Zircon nodded. 

“The hallucinations we saw back there, with the cube -- they were really simplistic, right? Mine were places I recognized, but with barely any detail in them. The only person there was Connie, and only because she was talking to me the whole time. I don’t think it was capable of creating something like this.” Peridot swept her hand around, indicating the scene in front of them and the group of Gems.

“Right. You’re right,” said Zircon, trying to reassure herself. “I know all that. I just can’t help thinking -- what if there’s something else? Something other than the cube? Something capable of more sophisticated effects.”

“We didn’t find anything like that.”

“That’s just it! If we did find something like that, we might not even know. We could be trapped, our friends yelling at us to snap out of it, Peridot, please, you have to _snap out of it_ \--“

Zircon suddenly grabbed her by the shoulders and shook her.

“Zircs, what are you doing?!” said Peridot, alarmed.

“I…” She let go of Peridot’s shoulders, disoriented. “I don’t know. Something just came over me. I just keep thinking about what happened, over and over…”

“Hey, it’s okay. It’s freaking me out too.” She could hardly judge Zircon for having a hard time when she had just been experiencing auditory hallucinations herself. “It’s over, really,” she said, reassuring herself as much as her friend. “We solved the case, we’re all safe, we’re going home. No more horrible brainwashing cubes, _ever._ ”

Zircon nodded shakily. “I certainly hope not.”

“Sorry I made you the canary.”

“That’s okay. I was a terrible canary anyway.”

* * *

They wrapped things up fairly quickly upon their return to Little Homeworld, contacting the other Crystal Gems and letting them know what had happened. The pair of researchers, badly shaken by this ordeal, had immediately accepted an invitation to stay in Little Homeworld and recover for as long as they needed. The older Selenites were carted off to a rehabilitation facility that had been established for Gems that were not willing to accept Era 3 -- it wasn’t quite a perfect fit, but it seemed like the most appropriate place they had for Gems that time forgot. Steven had helped oversee its creation when he and the Diamonds decided that Gems should not be punished for actions they took out according to orders prior to Era 3, a decision that did not sit well with some of the newly uncorrupted Crystal Gems, but one which may have been necessary to keep the peace.

Peridot, now thoroughly exhausted, gladly let Lapis extend a water wing and pull her into the hammock, wrapping them both in blankets. Lapis squeezed her tightly, in a way she often did when there was something bothering her.

“Lapis? You okay?”

Lapis looked away. “I just… don’t want to be trapped again, Peri.”

Peridot’s chest tightened. “Lapis… I’m sorry.”

“Why are you sorry? You’re the one who saved us. You saved _me._ You did an amazing job.” 

“I wish you didn’t have to go through that at all.”

“I’ll be okay. I just need some time.” Lapis sighed deeply and snuggled Peridot close. “Let’s just take a nap, okay?”

“Yeah, sounds good.” Peridot closed her eyes and tried not to see the cube, her friends trapped…

_Now you know that if you end up home and safe, you’re probably caught in the brainwashing forcefield thing again._

“Peridot, stop!” Connie was calling out to her. “Peridot, it’s me! Wake up!”

Peridot screwed her eyes shut tighter. It was just a memory. 

She was still in the hammock, in Lapis’ arms, but she was also somehow surrounded by water, and Lapis was yelling --

“Peri, wake up! Peri!”

Peridot startled awake to see Lapis looking down at her with concern. “You were having a nightmare,” said Lapis. 

The feeling of being surrounded by water fell away, but the stress and fear remained. “There’s something I’m supposed to be doing, Lapis, I just know it…” she said, disoriented.

“It’s okay, Peri,” said Lapis, gently stroking her hair and tracing her fingers around her gem. “It’s okay. You’re here, we’re both safe.”

“I think…” said Peridot, trying to calm herself down, “I’m not going to be able to forget all that any time soon. I keep getting these flashes of memories.”

“That’s called trauma, Peri. I know a few things about that.”

“Ugggh, I don’t want trauma. Can I just… _not_ be traumatized by all of that?”

“I really, really, really wish that’s how it worked,” said Lapis. “Maybe I can help. The other Gems have taught me a lot about dealing with those kinds of things.”

“Yeah, I know. I’m really proud of you, too.” Peridot buried her face in Lapis’ chest. “I think I’d like for you to teach me those things, actually, if that’s okay.”

“Of course it’s okay. We’ll get through this together. Promise.” Lapis pulled a blanket around them and resumed running her fingers through Peridot’s hair. “You seem exhausted right now, though. Back to taking a nap?”

“Mmhmm,” said Peridot, making herself comfortable, the tension starting to fade away.

“Good, it’ll be good for both of us. No more nightmares, okay? We’re here, we’re safe, everything’s going to be okay.” Lapis kissed Peridot gently right in the center of her gem. “Poor little canary.”

Peridot was already starting to fall asleep and didn’t fully register what Lapis had said before drifting off.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I promise I'm working on the next chapter of _Professionals_ this weekend. I just had to get at least part of this story out of my head so it would stop consuming my brain.
> 
> Thanks for reading!


End file.
